This idea is similar to the Bible Treasure Hunt posted before.
This works with all youth with the older ones helping the young youth, but it also can be worked with older people and younger groups( just make sure in each group there is a mix.
Here’s how it is executed.
Items you will need and things you will need to do before:
1) Figure out the items that they are going to be searching for. Find items around your church or whatever area you are using and find texts that contain the item, or something that is similar or can describe the item. For example, if the thing they are looking for is a rose, you may use a text like Solomon 2:1, “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”
They have to try to figure out all by themselves which word in the text it is that is the item.
2) Print and cut out the references of each text except the first one. Place each cut-out on, in front of, near, behind or where ever in the vicinity of the item. You may need to use tape. Make them small enough that they are hidden enough but big enough that they can still be found.(If that makes sense to you.) When they find the item they have to look around for the paper with next clue. Oh and remember to number them so that if they inadvertently find a clue out of order they know it doesn’t come until later on in the treasure hunt and will not become confused.
3) Print and give each group a numbered paper with the first text in the number 1 slot. As they move from clue to clue they have to write down the text reference in the numbered space which corresponds to it. You can give points for having all the texts written down.
4) And this is where it gets different from most other treasure hunts. Create a list of a number of actions/ tasks. e.g sing a song in a squeaky voice, read a bible verse backwards etc. You can create different combinations of items for each team or both can have the same list. This is how this part works. Everytime they find an item, one or two of the members of that team(depending on how big the team is in comparison to the number of clues/items/tasks that you have) have to go to the leader of their team and complete the number task that corresponds with the number of the clue they just found. You’ll have to have a judge per team to ensure that they complete the task correctly or as well as they can. They get points for this as well.
You divide your hunters into 2 teams.(More if you want.) These teams must each have a leader. That leader doesn’t actually go on the hunt though as was said before. The leader is supposed to remain at the starting point. When they have designated their leaders, the leader is in charge of giving the tasks to them.
Here is the reason this is called a “Bible Treasure” Treasure Hunt. The very last clue should point towards a Bible. How I designed this part. I had a box with treasure logos on it. Maybe some money symbols and so on. And the last text had a clue to where it could be found(You may need to put this notice on the clue paper so that they know it’s a location they are looking for.) And in that box was a Bible. A Real True Treasure.
Variation:
You can make the clues two-texted. That is, for each clue, one text will contain the item or whatever it is that they are looking for and the other text can contain a clue to where it is. For example the person maybe looking for say rock that you put near a pipe or water fountain. You would have a text for rock(e.g. the rocks will cry out) and a text for water.
©2006 Gem Welch